ESG's Illusions of Progress and Necessary Transformation

February 14, 2018 @ 8:00 AM

Location: Brown Advisory (100 High Street, 27th Floor)

"The only thing more dangerous than no progress is the illusion of progress,” says Reporting 3.0 Steering Board Member Brendan LeBlanc of EY. Reporting 3.0 worries that ESG investing and data may inadvertently be creating the “illusion of progress” and thereby enacting what Alex Steffen calls “predatory delay” — or action that falls short of the pace and scale needed to achieve true sustainability. As Global Reporting Initiative Co-Founder Allen White (and Reporting 3.0 Advocation Partner) says, “ESG does not, by nature, carry a true sustainability gene… Sustainability requires contextualization within thresholds — that’s what sustainability is all about.” And recent research shows that 95% of the ESG reports that companies have published since 2000 lack any link to these sustainability thresholds.

To resolve this problem, Reporting 3.0 is curating a global community of Positive Mavericks focused on the necessary level of transformation — at the micro level of company business models, and at the macro level of a truly regenerative and distributive economy. Come hear Bill Baue and Ralph Thurm speak about how Reporting 3.0 is “Blueprinting” the future of reporting, accounting, data, and new business models. And how you can join its Beta Testing Program to help pilot next-generation practices that can spur the emergence of a truly sustainable economy, or support its Global Thresholds & Allocations Council to inject a true sustainability gene into reporting, data, and investment.